Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs
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Marlon Richardson Speaks - Pt 6
April 26, 2005
In terms of carnival, there is nothing that can be compared with carnival, but in terms of Point Fortin in this restricted regional area, Borough Day is bigger than carnival. I am also the chairman of the carnival committee, and it is now getting back on its feet. The Borough Day has developed so large, that the carnival has us on an opposite spiral. We are now trying to make sure that the carnival can co-exist with Borough Day. Borough Day is now getting back on its feet after many years on a downward spiral. Our Borough Day is the pride and joy of the people of Point Fortin. If you talk to anybody including half of the claypsonians about Point Fortin they will tell you about Borough Day. Ask anybody. Even if we have no money, somebody is going to find a way to make sure Borough Day happens. The energy is absolutely incredible. You have to come and see it, and experience it to understand.
My grandmother originated from Grenada on my father's side, and my grandfather and my grandmother on my mother's side also originated from Grenada. Most of the people in Point Fortin have a heritage from the small islands. When the oilfields were developing, it was the small islanders that came to work and they created villages in Point Fortin. Point Fortin was created very much along class lines. There were three main villages where Mahaica was. There was Techier, which was created for the daily paid workers, which was the common man; there was Mahaica which was for the local middle class managers, and then there was Clifton Hill which was for the expatriate white people. In fact there was a time when you could not have gone into Clifton Hill without a pass. Then there was Strikers village which was founded by Butler. Strikers village was founded by the real hard core working people, and of course the many Vincentians and Grenadians that came to Trinidad and Tobago. Point Fortin was created along those class lines. Even after that, you had the building of the Harriman Park, which was for the upper class again. Then you had the small villages mushrooming around the oil belt. In fact where I lived, there was an oil well in my back yard. I grew up around the oil wells where we would often open the valves.
We knew about natural gas long before, but we also used to call it dry gas. We would take balloons, open it up and fill it with the dry gas, tie thread unto it, light it and send it up in the air and you would hear it go voom! The people of Techier and Mahaica, never bought gas. We have had a history where the excess gas, which is now used as LNG, was piped directly into the homes of the people of Mahaica, Clifton Hill and Techier. As a matter of fact the company would ask you to keep your burners on. There are some houses in Techier that still do it; they have grown accustom to it; they leave their burners on all day, that is the tradition. That was one of the few positives, because in those days it was hard work and it is one of the few things that our fore fathers negotiated on our behalf. Recently there was a move to take it away and the people protested vigorously.
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